


Comfort for Desperate Souls

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dark Castle, F/M, Rumbelle Showdown, enchanted forest, rumbelle showdown reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 19:02:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14837393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: My second round entry for the 2018 rumbelle showdown under the pseudonym Agnes. The prompts were: I’m telling; just this once; I can’t do thisWhen Rumpelstiltskin requests Belle's attendance at a very delicate deal, Belle learns more about the price of magic and those desperate enough to contact Rumpelstiltskin for it, and she finds that the Dark One is perhaps not so very dark after all.I see this as a sequel toInquisitivebut it is not necessary to have read it to understand this one.





	Comfort for Desperate Souls

It would have been a perfectly ordinary evening in the Dark Castle. They had fallen into a routine, the two of them. Once the day’s work was done, and once Rumplestiltskin had returned from whatever deals he had been making that day, they would sit together in the castle’s main hall until it was time to retire for the night. Belle would read whatever new book from her vast library had caught her eye that day, curled up on the chaise longue, and Rumple would spin, and they would compare notes on what had happened that day. 

The tales of Rumple’s exploits were usually far more interesting than her own daily chores, but since the arrival of Ebony in the castle, she’d had a few more amusing stories of her own to share, which usually ended in Rumple grumbling about what the kitten had managed to get herself into this time.

This evening had been shaping up to be no different, until Rumple suddenly stopped spinning, as if he had been frozen in place. His brow was furrowed and his head tipped slightly on one side, as if he was listening out for something. He remained like this for several minutes, and Belle was beginning to worry.

“Rumple? Are you all right?”

She started off the chaise and was halfway towards him when he moved again, turning towards her. His expression still showed deep thought, and he seemed to be rather perturbed.

“Rumple?”

“A desperate soul,“ he said eventually. "I can always hear the call of one.”

“Are you going out again?” Belle asked. “At this time of night?”

Rumple nodded. “I think I shall have to. These calls aren’t the type of thing I can ignore. If they’re so desperate that they’re calling me, then they must be very desperate indeed.”

Something was wrong. Usually Rumple was gleeful when he got to go out and make deals with the unsuspecting folks who were not ready for the prices that he would extract. Tonight he seemed far from his usual self, worried almost.

“Belle,” he began, “I get the feeling that I might need your help for this one.”

“Me?” Belle took a step back, alarmed. “What, no, how?”

“I only hear the voice,” Rumple said. “I never know the circumstances until I actually get there, but I can tell when I’m needed, and I’m needed now. But something tells me that it would be a good idea if you came along too.”

Belle was still unsure. “Is it going to be dangerous?”

Rumple shook his head. “No, not at all. I can promise you that. I would never put your life in danger like that.”

Although his reputation as a trickster preceded him everywhere he went, Rumplestiltskin had never outright lied to her, and Belle took some comfort from that. The notion that he cared enough about her not to want to endanger her warmed her heart a little.

“Just this once,” Rumple continued. “Please.”

Slowly, Belle nodded her agreement. “All right. I’ll come and investigate this desperate soul with you.” A small smile played over her lips. “It’ll get me out of the castle at any rate.”

Rumplestiltskin rolled his eyes, then snapped his fingers to summon her cloak from her bedroom. “Come, we don’t have any time to lose.”

They landed in a swirl of smoke in the middle of a dark field, and Belle stumbled onto her knees, unused to magical travel as she was. She didn’t think that she’d be asking to do it again in a hurry. Rumple caught her before she could plant her face into the ground, and if he held on to her for a little too long whilst checking that she was unharmed, then Belle pretended not to notice.

“Is this it?” she whispered. Rumple nodded.

“Yes. This is where the call came from. Now we just have to find out who made it.”

“In the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere?”

“Not precisely the middle of nowhere.” Rumple pointed over to the left, and through the gloom, Belle could just make out the dim form of a cottage, with a light burning low in one of the windows. As they approached the house, Belle could make out faint voices at the edge of the field. As she got closer, she realised that the voices could only have belonged to children.

“Marcus! You shouldn’t have done that! I’m telling!” It was a little girl’s voice.

“No! You can’t!” This was an older boy. “This is the only chance we have of Mother getting better!”

“Marcus! He’s the Dark One!”

Belle hung back as they continued to approach the children, and Rumple stopped, turning back to her.

“Belle? Is everything all right?”

She shook her head. “I can’t do this.”

“What?”

“They’re just children!” Belle exclaimed in a harsh whisper. “I can’t get involved with this, with you making deals with desperate children who are just trying to save their mother!”

Rumple’s face was the most sombre that she had ever seen it.

“And precisely how is our staying out of this supposed to help them?” he asked. There was no accusation in his tone, just a question asked in good faith. “You said yourself that they’re desperate. Don’t you think that they’ve already exhausted all other avenues before calling for me? And if I abandon them in their hour of need, then what hope have they?”

When he put it like that, Belle had to agree. They were the children’s last hope, and they couldn’t ignore their call.

“But they’re just children,” she repeated, still uneasy by what they were about to do. “They can’t pay the price for your magic.”

The corner of Rumple’s mouth quirked up in a smile for the briefest of moments. “Who says that they’re going to have to?”

They reached the children, and immediately Belle could see why Rumplestiltskin had wanted her to come along. They shrank back in fear at the sight of him, and Belle stepped forward to reassure them.

“It’s all right. We’re here to help you. Your mother’s sick, and needs medicine, yes?”

The boy nodded. “We don’t have enough money to buy the herbs from the healer, and our father is on a ship.”

“I see,” Rumplestiltskin said. “Can you take me to your mother, so that I can determine what herbs she needs?”

Unsure and still afraid, but mollified by Belle’s benign presence, the children led the way into the house. The mother, restless and feverish on a small cot, startled when she saw Rumplestiltskin.

“Dark One,” she began, her words punctuated by coughing. “I… We can’t afford the price of your magic…”

“It’s been taken care of,” Rumplestiltskin said, waving her worries away. He looked at her with his head on one side for a long time, and then gave a definitive nod. “Yes, this should be an easy enough potion to procure. Don’t go anywhere.”

He vanished without a word, leaving Belle stranded in the little cottage with the mother and two children, who were looking at her with a kind of awe. Belle didn’t know what to say or how to reassure them; she couldn’t exactly say that this was the first time that she’d been out on a deal with Rumple. Luckily, there was a knock at the door, and the boy went to open it.

Rumple stepped inside.

“Why didn’t you just puff back inside?” the girl asked.

Rumple put a hand on his chest, affecting a shocked expression. “Just ‘puffing’ into someone’s house unannounced is the height of rudeness,” he said, and despite their desperate position, the girl laughed. Rumple presented a small potion bottle to her with a flourish. “Two drops, morning and evening, for the next two days. That will save your mother.”

The children nodded solemnly. “Thank you,” the boy said, then he elbowed his sister. “Say thank you!”

“Thank you, Mr Dark One.”

Belle hid a giggle behind her hand.

“Well, we had best be off,” Rumple said brightly. “Come on, Belle, let’s leave them in peace.”

They left the family in their cottage, walking over the fields to where they first appeared.

“Rumple… What about the price?” Belle asked. “All magic comes with one, that’s what you’ve always said.”

Rumplestiltskin shrugged. “It’s a simple enough spell. I can shoulder the price. Just this once.”

He offered her his arm without another word, and Belle found herself wondering. The Dark One really wasn’t as dark as people said.


End file.
